I came across this article and thought that some people here might find it interesting. They have collected a great many rules of writing from a number of sources.

Elmore Leonard would apparently approve of how little I describe my characters and yet hate that I often describe how they say things...

http://m.guardian.co.uk/?id=102202&story=http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/feb/20/ten-rules-for-writing-fiction-part-one

yep, I saw these and some are quite good. I especially found Gaiman's comments helpful.

The two writers e-mail lists I'm on both discussed these and the most controversy was over whether it's wrong to use synonyms for "he said". One of the authors in the article comes down heavily on using them but I'm of the opposite school. I think "he said" is repetetive and intrusive if it's used every other sentence. You can get away with it for two people chatting at a kitchen table. It starts to get old and drab when you have twenty-three people battling a super-villain.

The again, I'm the only person who's used the phrase "he opined" in the last century.

... I think I might scrap my World War 1 story. Not only did I start with a paragraph about the weather, but I went crazy with adverbs.

This is really useful. Thanks.

There was no real consensus on those guidelines, they were just every writer's personal rules. Certainly the "don't describe anybody" rule is all a matter of taste. Plus, much like Ian, I quite disagree with "said" being all that is ever needed.

If you really want to take that advice to heart, then I'd suggest putting the original story aside and rewriting a section of it while trying to conform to the rules that most worry you. Then compare the two and see which you prefer. No reason to take their word that another hypothetical approach would be better, sight unseen.

Ultimately, write with your own style... And that's going to take breaking the rules that.you want to break.

Your WWI story was excellent. As I said, not my cup of tea, but it was certainly very well written. Rules in writing are meant to be broken; reader satisfaction is the only measure that matters.

~Hat~